A Deputy Finance Minister Kwaku Kwarteng has told Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm that the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) is a limited liability company and not a state own entity where the president or any other state official can easily manipulate or direct its board.

He was responding to allegations by the Minority in Parliament that, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta breached due process by approving a loan facility from Agricultural Development Bank to McDan Shipping Company Limited.

At a press briefing which was addressed by the Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu, the caucus said the Minister breached the procurement Act when he awarded a GH?10m COCOBOD contract to a private businessman.

According to him, the contract given to McDan Shipping Company Limited, did not pass through the Central Tender Review committee. The MPs say the contract was awarded on June 9, 2017, but the Review committee which is to do the approval was only constituted on August 1, 2017.

But Kwarteng disputed the claims by the Minority stressing that the bank wrote to the Minister and asked him to approve the credit facility because they had no board and also the credit facility was beyond its limit. He also emphasized that, the bank wrote a similar letter to the other share holders of the bank hence it makes the allegations by the Minority flawed.



According to him, the Minority may have held the press conference because they’ve not read the full details of the letter the bank wrote to the various shareholders. He has therefore asked the media to engage with the other shareholders and find out whether there was a majority decision by the shareholders on the approval of the credit facility.

The call on the president to reverse the decision he said, was unfounded and baseless because the Minister did no wrong as being speculated by the Minority. ‘’The Minister did no wrong and the president is not the one to constitute the board of directors for the bank. The Minister acted in his capacity as a significant shareholder of the bank,’’ he said.



He insisted, the Minister in his letter instructed the bank to do due diligence and bring before the board to ratify the approval of the credit facility. The Agricultural Development Bank (adb) Limited is a universal bank offering a full range of banking products and services in consumer corporate, parastal, SME, Agriculture, Trade and E-Banking services.

Its business focus is universal banking with a developmental focus on Agriculture and more. The bank successfully listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on December 20, 2016.

The new ownership of the bank structure is as follows: Government of Ghana has 32.30% with Belstar Capital Limited having 24%. Starmount Development Company Limited-11%; SIC Financial Services-10%; Bank of Ghana-9.50%; EDC Investment Limited-6% and Retail Investors and ADB Staff-7.20%.